April 23, 1993 La Cigalle, Paris, FRA
In April 1993, after practicing for four days on the south coast of England, Jeff Beck and the Big Town Playboys were ready for their premier live performance as a temporary working unit. Doing mostly the Crazy Legs - Vincent/Gallup tribute, they rounded out their set with a few other numbers from that era, from people like Carl Perkins and the Johnny Burnette Trio. As a balancing move, the first part of the set was a showcase of the Playboys without Jeff while the last twenty minutes or so were set aside to bring back a few Beck signature tunes as well as a surprise or two. Wanting to see if they could pull it off live, Jeff Beck opted for a club atmosphere venue at a trendy spot in Paris, France called La Cigale. At this juncture they did not know that the planned major U.S. - nine city tour beginning in Cliff Gallup's home town of Norfolk, VA and ending in LA would unfortunately not proceed in the ensuing months. April 23, 1993 saw the Big Town Playboys start the evening with a very tight, energenic set and then all hell broke loose as vocalist/pianist Mike Sanchez simply announced, "Please welcome Jeff Beck". Without a moment of hesitation the group broke into "Crazy Legs" as from then onwards Mr. "Crazy Fingers" nimbly pulled off all of those exacting Gallup riffs just as he did on the Lp. Also just like the Lp, they blended right from "Crazy Legs" to "Double Talkin' Baby" without skipping a beat! Other highlights from that part of the evening include "Believe", Pretty Baby" and "Baby Blue". The risk taken at this gig was enormous. Playing at low volume and a clean tone, Jeff had to play each note precisely. All of which he had to do on a much harder to play old Gretsch Duo Jet guitar rather than his customary fast action Fender Stratocasters. It was all worth the risk as that authentic old rockabilly sound was pulled off with style and grace by Jeff. I was amazed at the live recreation of "B-I-Bickey-Bi-Bo Bo Go" which was Cliff Gallup at his wildest. Yet on this song and other numbers, Jeff still managed to throw in some of his up the neck-down the neck patented Beck trademark licks! Whatever pre-tour apprehensions Jeff may have harboured seemed to have vanished by the time he switched back to his Fender Tele and roared into a spellbinding version of the Freddy King classic "The Stumble". With just a hint of tasteful distortion, Beck launched into a slightly louder solo and hit some nice emotional high notes that accentuated that lovely number. Towards the end of the evening, Mike Sanchez said, "Let's see if you know this one" as they launched into a down and dirty but true to the original version of the Johnny Burnette Trio's "Train Kept A Rollin'". The crowd didn't need any coaxing when Sanchez asked, "You want a little bit more?". As The Big Town Playboys laid down a refreshing medium paced backbeat, all of a sudden Sanchez let the cat out of the surprise bag with the piano intro of "Going Down". Jeff Beck climbed into the upper stratosphere with feedback, harmonics and nasty gut wrenching wails! As if this weren't enough, the volume hushed and Sanchez asked again if the audience wanted a little more. The drummer, Clive Deamer, changed his time signatures and with a one-two-three-four bang and roll it was then the familiar driving tempo of the classic Don Nix song "Going Down" complete with yet more fresh discordant rapid-fire licks from Jeff and sudden band stops featuring some finger lickin' Beck Chickin' Pickin'!